


The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

by TrekFaerie



Category: The Lorax (2012)
Genre: Age Difference, F/M, Sharing Clothes, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-21
Updated: 2013-10-21
Packaged: 2017-12-30 01:25:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1012359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrekFaerie/pseuds/TrekFaerie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There was a girl walking through the valley.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

There was a girl with brown boots and red hair so bright, the Once-ler could see it, through the smog and the smoke, all the way up in his office. She wasn’t from town—after all, he knew everyone in town—but she came down to the valley every day, staring up at the factory and watching the trees fall. He wrote her off as a loony; who else would come to such a dangerous place, wander around aimlessly like a tourist while axes swirled and chopped around her?

About a week after her first appearance, he had his assistant go invite her inside.

He wore his best suit and new designer sunglasses, and met her for the first time with a desk between them. There was schlop staining the edge of her dress, and mud caked on her boots. There were even twigs and truffula tufts stuck in her hair.

It took him two tries to actually open his mouth and get words out, he was so nervous. “Just what do you think you’re doing?” As if he could be any more cliché.

She shrugged. “I was just walking around. Is that a crime?”

“Well, yeah, actually. Everyone here in the normal world call it ‘trespassing.’”

He had not expected to start laughing. Of all the things he had been expecting, laughter was very low on the list. “H-Hey! I’m being serious here! You just technically committed a crime!”

“Technically, it should be a crime for you to hide your eyes behind those stupid sunglasses, but you don’t see me calling security.” She crossed her arms. “Why are you even wearing those? There’s no sun here anymore.”

At some point, he must have put his sunglasses on the table, because he remembered a distinct crunching noise happening sometime between their first kiss and his learning that her name was Audrey.

-

The Once-ler’s mansion was so large, you could walk through it for days without seeing another person. Sometimes, this worked out for him, since his family was living with him. Sometimes, it didn’t. He spent three hours searching for the guest room his assistant had shuffled Audrey into.

When he arrived, she was asleep, curled up on the obnoxiously large bed dressed in an equally as obnoxious green thneed robe. She must have taken the opportunity to wash up. He noted the smell of truffula fruits in the air; bath products were just the latest expansion his company had undertaken.

He sat down on the bed next to her as gingerly as possible, trying not to wake her up. Her actually being awake would be the beginning of the end; as long as she was asleep, he couldn’t say something stupid or embarrass himself or accidentally give her a black eye with his elbow. He’d learned more than a few things from his previous encounters with pretty girls.

Her hair was still wet, so she hadn’t been asleep long. He found himself pushing a few stray strands off her forehead, which turned out to be a mistake. Apparently, girls that walked through dangerous worksites were very light sleepers.

Her eyes fluttered open, green as the robe she was wearing. “I’d always wondered what butterfly milk would smell like.”

“Um, okay, if that’s how your people say hello wherever you’re from.” She laughed, which was a reaction he was used to, but it didn’t sound mocking or mean. It sounded like she thought he was funny. “Um… Did you sleep well?”

“Better than I have in a while.” She stretched, body arching off the bed like a cat, and he swallowed hard. “How long were you watching me?”

He spluttered, face beet-red. “I wasn’t—”

“Oh, yeah, sure. You were just sitting on this bed for no reason.” A wry little grin. “You don’t have to lie to me, you know. I never lie.”

“Where did you come from?”

Her expression was one of a person obviously trying to think up a lie very quickly. “… Away. You’ve probably never heard of it.”

“Nuh-uh, you’re not getting away with that, missy! I’ve been to 'Away' and 'Far Off' and anywhere else you could think up, and I’ve never seen you.”

She crossed her arms and pouted—it took him a moment to figure out she was copying him. “Don’t call me ‘missy.’ It makes me sound like a little girl.”

“That may be because you are.”

“A little girl you were kissing before.”

She sat up, and though he had to turn his face down to meet her eyes, he had never felt more intimidated. “My name is Audrey. I’m from a place I can’t tell you about, that’s farther away than you would even believe. And,” she said, reaching out to cover his hand with hers, “I think you’re a really good kisser.”

He never brought up the topic again.

-

“Wow!” She spun around in front of the mirrors, trying to see her new dress from every angle. The shimmery fabric caught the bright light of the dressing room; Once-ler had bought out the whole tailor, just for this moment. “It’s so…”

He grinned. “Perfect?”

“I was going to say ‘green,’ but that’s a good one, too.” She gave a little smile at his reflection, lounging on the plush sofa behind her. “Have you ever stopped to think that you may have a tiny little obsession?”

“Green is the perfect color; it goes with everything.” He moved from the couch to flush behind her, his hands teasing the ribbon resting on her hips. “Especially red.”

“I know what a color wheel looks like, Once-ler. You can’t make art without it.” She pushed back against him, until his head was on top of her own. “I think you like it because it reminds you of money. How much did this dress cost, anyway? It was probably a disgusting amount of money.”

“Hey, if you think that’s disgusting, just wait until you see the rest of it.”

She could feel him let go of her just long enough to rummage around in his pants pocket. She watched as his hands draped a necklace around her, busying themselves with the complicated clasp. It was small, a silver chain with a blue stone, but it was perfect. “No, this is definitely too—“

Audrey turned around just in time to have an ornate silver tiara placed gingerly on her head. The decorative swirls reminded her of something, and it threw her off at first. “… So, do you do this for every girl you’ve only known for a month?”

He looked so proud, all smiles and a straight back, but something felt… She gave him a long, thoughtful stare.

“You’ve never had a girlfriend before, have you?”

His shoulders slumped. “Does it even matter? I have one now, and I’m going to do the best I can. That’s all that matters. Right?”

“Hm.” It was an odd little noise, neither an answer to nor a dismissal of his question. She turned back to the mirror and cocked her head to the side slightly. “Don’t you think the tiara is a bit much?”

Once-ler pressed a quick kiss against her cheek. “No such thing.”

-

“It’s all going to be gone someday, you know.”

If it had been anyone else sitting on his desk and smoking his cigars and looking out the window onto the valley below, the Once-ler would have pushed them off the balcony. But, he made an exception for Audrey, who had the obvious advantage of being naked besides her boots and his suit jacket. Since she had that, he merely rolled his eyes at her, swirling his chair around to face her. “What do you know about that?”

“It takes twenty years for a truffula tree to become fully grown. Ten months just for the seed to sprout.” She took a long drag and pulled a face. “What’s in this thing, anyway?”

“Don’t ask questions.” He put his hands around her waist and pulled her off the desk and onto his lap. “You’re always asking so many questions.”

“You’re the one who asks questions. I’m the one with all the answers.”

-

The last tree fell, and he watched them all go away.

The animals marched. The Lorax rose. His family drove.

And Audrey, she jumped.

It was around his fifth hour lying hopelessly in the dirt next to that damned rock—unless—that she came out of the factory, dressed in her normal clothes.

“So,” he asked, his voice sour even to his own ears, “you leaving too?”

She nodded. “Yeah. But, not for the reason you think.” She kneeled next to him, brushing some hair out of his eyes with more care than anyone else had ever given him.

“Can’t you just…” His voice cracked, and he suddenly felt younger than her. “Can’t you just stay?”

“Hey, I don’t make up the rules. I just exploit them for my own gain.” She smiled, leaning down to give him a rather chaste kiss on the cheek. “You’re still a good man, Mr. Once-ler, you always have been,” she whispered into his ear. “Try not to forget that. Or me.”

He didn’t bother lifting his head up to watch her go. All he managed to see when he finally turned was a flash of red disappearing.

She had jumped. She had jumped off the edge and into the valley.

Even though his later explorations failed to produce a body, he always believed that she had jumped, maybe to save him the trouble of doing it himself. He never even considered another option.

He did find one thing while he was searching, though. One, tiny little seed.

**Author's Note:**

> ALSO SOMEONE DREW FANART OF THIS ONCE it was my greatest moment in fandom ever
> 
> http://plaus.tumblr.com/post/28967880244/heres-that-audler-piece-i-was-working-on-its


End file.
